Adam Borota never had a chance to be the hero.
That title went to Pennsville’s Adam Vanderslice, whose ground ball goal past a diving Mike Blanton gave his team an insurmountable 4-2 lead in the shoot-out last Wednesday against the Florence Township Memorial High School Boys’ Varsity Soccer Team after both teams had ended regulation and a pair of 10 minute overtimes in a 2-2 deadlock.
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Adam Borota never had a chance to be the hero.
That title went to Pennsville’s Adam Vanderslice, whose ground ball goal past a diving Mike Blanton gave his team an insurmountable 4-2 lead in the shoot-out last Wednesday against the Florence Township Memorial High School Boys’ Varsity Soccer Team after both teams had ended regulation and a pair of 10 minute overtimes in a 2-2 deadlock.
Florence Head Coach mike Flynn had saved Borota for last because of his uncanny ability to face down pressure. Yet despite line drive goals to the far left post by John Hartman and Danny Jones, Florence lost the shoot-out before Borota’s turn ever came around.
Pennsville’s penalty kick shooters scored on four of the most perfectly placed shots one will ever see on a high school soccer field. On three, Blanton had absolutely no chance of stopping them. On Vanderslice’s goal however the ball took a tricky hop over Blanton’s hand.
"I was just trying to go far right post," said Vanderslice, whose teammates had shot in the opposite direction.
Yet, for all its "instant thrills" excitement, the shoot-out somehow, diminished what had been a good clean game against a pair of hard-working teams. Sensing his team had some physical mismatches with Pennsville coming into the game, Coach Flynn had his players play about 10 feet off any Pennsville player with the ball, and considering the Flasher’s play on such a small field it was easy for them to make up any ground they needed to make up.
Meanwhile, Florence took turns playing a two-man offensive game with either Borota and Brandon Stephens, Borota and Xavier Gonzalez, and Borota and Ryan Palles matching up. Gonzalez’ assignment s were so plentiful that often he had to be substituted just so he could catch his breath.
"They were a good team," said Coach Flynn. "They had some opportunities. We had some opportunities. You hate to see it come down to PK’s, but I thought we played well enough to win. They played well enough to win. They were definitely more of a physical team than we were, so it was tough. We’ve been practicing the last couple of days on our penalty kicks. I thought it might come down to this. The ball just didn’t go our way."
In the first half, Pennsville’s Bryan Silinsky got loose and passed it to Sean O’Brien who scored on a breakaway. Blanton had no chance. Yet at the 18:09 mark, with three defenders on him Adam Borota stopped a ball in midair, balanced it momentarily on his right foot and then blasted a rocket to the right of Pennsville’s goalie. The shot was simply awe-inspiring.
Then with just under five minutes to go in the half, Borota scored on a mad scramble in front of the Pennsville net on a pass from Danny Jones.
At the time Borota though his score might have given his squad a strangle hold on the game.
"I thought we were real close to winning the game," he said. "I thought my team was playing good. Through the whole entire game we tried our hardest. One hundred percent we gave. It ended up at the end, we came up short."
Some of Borota’s dreams of moving on were shattered when Pennsville’s Kevin Foley scored off a Jason Finlaw assist about a minute after Borota’s goal. So instead of going into intermission with the lead, Florence had to start over from scratch.
In the second half and the two overtimes both sides began to physically wear down. Although Florence did seem to dominate the first overtime where Borota and Gonzalez almost hooked up for a goal and Danny Jones came close to putting in a header.
The only constant seemed to be Mike Blanton (18 saves) who routinely came well out of the box to prevent possible scores. In the second OT he even fought through several Pennsville players to catch a line drive corner kick.
Earlier, he had made a diving stop of a sure goal, however Pennsville’s constant hounding and triple-teaming was starting to have an adverse affect on Borota, who was often physically held during the game.
"I got pretty exhausted running around trying to get up top and trying to get one in quick," he said. "I was getting tired, but I was still trying my hardest."
Matt Zacharkow also came through with some big defensive stops for Florence and players like Bryan Fitzwater and Ryan Pallas also played well.
The day after Florence’s loss, Mike Blanton was back on the same field practicing. After awhile he walked over to Florence’s Athletic Director Joe Frappolli and told him that he would have liked to have tried a penalty kick.
Mike Blanton is like that. He is and aggressive goalkeeper who besides Borota, was the main reason Florence took the game to OT in the first place. Looking at Blanton one could not help but think he would have made that goal.
Sometimes it is hared to give up the soccer season when its 70 degrees outside and most of the multi-colored leaves are still on the trees. Its especially hard when the season ends with a "silly" shoot-out.
